When toddlers first learn to crawl it is necessary to protect their knees from redness and irritation. Additionally, their knees need to be protected from abrasions during forward falls during the first steps and active play both indoors and outdoors. As a result, a solution is required that will accommodate the growth of the child and will offer protection as the child progresses from crawling to walking.
The prior art includes several examples of knee pads for children included among which are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,224 to Walker (2001) discloses knee pads that are incorporated into socks or sock bands which offer protection during crawling. These knee pads are prohibitively expensive to manufacture. They do not provide enough breathability in a warm environment since they cover the most of the leg. Additionally, they do not offer any traction on a bare floor or wood due to the fact that the knee pad is internal and the textile surface of the sock offers little or no traction. As a result, the knee pads according to Walker cannot be considered to be effective.
U.S. Patent 2009/0048550 to Feeley (2009) shows knee pads that solve some but not all of the issues of the Walker device. The Feely device protects the child's knee through the use of a frontal facing silicone pad. It becomes ineffective as soon as the silicone pads slide sideways during crawling and as a result exposes the knee to the crawling surface with nothing to absorb the impact.
U.S. Pat. No. Des 417,037 to Bitter (1999) discloses knee pads that are secured by a strap with a Velcro fastener. This device will tend to irritate the child's skin during the bending and unbending of the leg and this device will tend to constrict the child's leg and interfere with normal blood circulation.
While most of the knee pads in the prior art offer some level of protection, they all suffer from a number of disadvantages. The prior art knee pads are too bulky and the frontal facing pad becomes ineffective when knee pads rotate on the child's leg and move sideways. The frontal facing pads frequently need to be adjusted by a parent or guardian to maintain the desired frontal position.
If a protective hard shell is used in a knee pad and the hard shell is too thick it will elevate the child's hips above the elevation of the child's shoulder area and thus put unnecessary stress on the shoulder joints and the lower back thus increasing the chances of shoulder injuries and forward falls on to the child's face.
Despite the developments of the prior art there remains a need for a safe and effective knee pad for toddlers and children. There is no protective gear presently available on the market which is capable of providing a toddler or a child with a lightweight, knee conforming, breathable apparatus which may be comfortably worn on the child's leg around the knee area to reduce the likelihood of painful skin irritation or abrasion.